The Night Watchman
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Shota Aizawa was a man prone to logic. He had to be in his line of work as a pro-hero. however after run in with an orphaned teenage girl, he now suddenly finds himself prone to flights of fancy and a strict obsession with said girl. Who knew that falling in love for the first time was so troublesome? Aizawa/fem Izuku.
1. Chapter 1

Moss green eyes stared out into the dimness of her room almost vacantly before she turned her head to glance at the small digital clock lying on the bedside table next to her bed. _Another night without any damned sleep._ Her exhausted mind thought almost bitterly as she decided to get up and do something for a little bit to see if it would help to tire her out faster.

She'd not had a solid six to eight hours of sleep since the night she and her late mother had had their home invaded, seven years ago, by a couple of villains that had raped and murdered her mother and held her prisoner in the room with her poor mother's body for a week before they had been caught by the authorities.

Of course by then the damage had been done.

While her physical injuries hadn't been all that bad, her mind had been almost irreparably scarred by the incident. So much so that she'd tried to scratch out her own eyes at one point in an effort to escape the images in her mind of her mother's final, horrifying moments.

Afterwards she'd spent a couple of years in the hospital being watched around the clock, going to therapy sessions, having medicines that she didn't need- and some that she did- pushed down her throat.

She probably would have been in there forever if not for the fact that the doctors had felt that she was making progress and 'getting better'. The truth of the matter was that she was simply good at burying her feelings about the incident until something triggered the memories.

She supposed that it was part of her PTSD disorder, but she wasn't sure. All she cared about was that she was free. And once she was, she had started going back to school- which she had luckily been able to keep up in thanks to social workers and shit- so she wasn't left behind by her classmates.

She'd started the next year right along side them, which had given her a few precious months of freedom to get her affairs in order as far as where she was going to live, how she was going to pay for it and other things that she needed. She'd had to file and fill out a shitload of paperwork at several different government offices. But once it was all done, she received a nice government check for five thousand eight hundred dollars to live on monthly.

An nice small two bedroom, one bath, loft apartment with facilities that was owned by a kind old man that liked to refer to her as his 'grandbaby'. And was located half a mile from her childhood friend Ka-chan's place. Which, depending on how one saw things could be considered either good or bad given the boy's quirk and explosive bi-polar temper.

Still, she'd had a lot of work to do once she got herself the place. Paint, furniture, appliances, dishes, silver, pots and pans to cook with, a washer and drier... She then had to buy a bed, a small couch, a coffee table or two, some lamps, a few book shelves for her books and other small things that she used to decorate her home.

After all of that had been done and everything had been in place, she had then gone to get some necessities. Food, clothing, shoes ect. Which she wasn't going to lie, had cost quite a bit even when she had been shopping at the Goodwill located two blocks away with the stuff on sale.

Still when everything was said and done, she'd managed to get what was needed and still have enough to get her through to the next month.

Sighing, she moved around her home in her thigh length button up long sleeved night shirt. Going from her bedroom to the hallway where she passed some posters of her favorite hero turned villain, and then into the living room and turned on the lamp closest to her.

And blinked her sleep bloodshot eyes when the light began to hurt her eyes a little bit. Once her eyes weren't stinging anymore, she took a moment to weigh whether or not she wished to read again tonight or simply go out and work off whatever excess energy she had until she collapsed until finally deciding that she needed to get the hell out for a bit.

Maybe a nice walk/run/jog would tire her out.

Huffing slightly she turned on her heel and made her way back to her bedroom to snag herself some pants or something to wear with her nightshirt, and a couple of hair ties to put her near waist length hair up with. It took a few minutes to get the thick silken mass of hair up where she wanted it, in high pig tails on both sides of her head, before she then took a moment to slip her shorts on and then went to where she kept her shoes and grabbed a pair of sneakers to slip into.

It wasn't yet cold outside this time of year, so she needn't worry about a jacket or coat. Which was good she supposed, since she didn't have either a jacket or coat.


	2. Chapter 2

Shota Aizawa didn't frequent the slums of the city often. In fact it was rare that any of his patrols took him this route at all. However he was a stickler for being thorough, and so here he was- on the roof of a condemned building checking the streets below for something. _Anything_ really, to make him feel useful until it was time for him to go home when his dark eyes caught sight of a girl running on the streets below as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels.

Her approximate age was difficult to tell from way up here. But she looked between JR. High and High School age if he had to make an real educated guess.

Following her figure with his dark eyes, he studied her for a moment before deciding to drop down to the street and follow her at a discreet distance to make sure that she stayed out of trouble. Stepping off of the edge of the roof, he let himself freefall to the ground below where he landed deftly on the balls of his feet and then took off running after her.

She must have run for about an hour, her current location was a local park that was usually riddled with crime during the early morning hours. Muggings, rapes, prostitution, kidnappings, murders- The list would be mind numbingly near endless if not for the fact that several of his co-workers stayed close to the area to keep it as clean as possible of those things.

However like any pro-hero would tell you if asked, they couldn't save everyone that they did or didn't come across. They were human too, and tended to make as many mistakes as any other person in the world depending on their training, and circumstances and many, many other things.

And while he would have preferred for the girl not to wind up in this particular park so late at night. He would have felt much worse about it if he hadn't have followed her so closely with the intention of practically staying on her heels until she decided to go home.

Slowing his pace since she was no longer running, he soon found himself walking towards a vending machine that she was feeding some coins to and soon found himself digging in his pockets and doing the same with the vending machine next to her.

Casting the girl a curious look out of the corner of his eye, he made note of some of her features up close.

She was a pretty little thing between the age of fifteen and sixteen. With long, near waist length black-green colored hair up in pigtails, long-ish bangs that nearly hid impossibly wide moss green eyes lined with long sooty lashes. Pale, unblemished cream colored skin dusted with pale, cute little freckles along the bridge of her nose.

Her height was somewhere around chest level with him, so she was about five foot something. And due to her petite build she probably weighed about a hundred and nine pounds when wet.

"Do you have a staring problem or something?" The kid asked, the sudden sound of her raspy, husky voice causing him to suddenly look away from her and feign interest in...the vending machine? Yes, yes that was it. The vending machine was interesting. It had all manner of juices, soda's, milks, coffee flavors and ect. in it.

Therefore the vending machine was his friend.

He didn't bother responding to her question since responding was the same as admitting guilt. Instead he simply finished getting his drink from the vending machine and then turned and walked off, pretending that he wasn't going to duck into the nearest thicket of bushes or behind the nearest tree just to keep an eye on her.

The problem child stared at his back as he left. He could tell by the way the hair on the nape of his neck stood on end from the intensity of her stare.

Letting himself blend in with the darkness that surrounded him, he quickly located a nice place to tuck himself away in and made quick work of doing so once he was certain that he'd still have his eye on the girl.

She stared in the direction that he had walked off in for several moments longer, obviously trying to make him out in the inky blackness to see where he had went. Which was a job made all that more difficult thanks to his dark clothing and hair.

After she assumed that he had left the area, she grabbed her drink and made short work of it before deciding to sit down for a little bit. She must have been sitting down for the better part of forty five minutes before he began to get impatient for her to leave the area and started to step out of his hiding place to go and see if he could maybe *cough _bully_ cough* her into going home.

Or at the very least maybe scare her into leaving the immediate area before something bad happened to her. Hopefully she would be more sensible than she appeared to be.

Stepping out from his hiding place, he stealthily made his way back towards the vending machines and the nearest park bench. It took him a moment to reach the bench and when he finally did he let out a soft curse as he glared half heartedly down at the problem child.

How was he supposed to 'bully' or scare the kid into going back home or leaving the park if she was currently dead to the world and asleep? Then again, now that he really thought about it- how could she have even fallen asleep out here? Granted it wasn't exactly cold or overly warm this time of year- but the metal of the bench couldn't have been comfortable.

"Son of a-" He muttered as he scrubbed his face roughly with a hand while wondering what the hell he was supposed to do with the problem child now? Sure he could go through her pocket and possibly wake her just to see if she had a wallet that had an ID or something in it with her home address- but if she woke up with his hand in her pocket- she might think that he was trying to feel her up.

And god forbid he _actually_ left her little ass there on the fucking bench to sleep for the rest of the night. Heaven knew what would happen to the problem child if he simply walked away from her now.

Maybe he could rent a hotel room- No! _No!_ That's a bad Aizawa. No hotel room renting for the underage girl! People would talk if they ever found out.

Making a low growling sound out of frustration, he took a moment to check his watch to see how much longer he'd be on active duty and upon seeing that it was well past four am. And his work for the night was over. It was now time for him to go home and get some rest himself.

But first...he took a moment or so longer to think of what to do with the kid before sighing and deciding that there was no helping it. He couldn't ditch her and he couldn't simply leave her with a friend who was still on duty... Reaching out he carefully slipped his arms around her and lifted her up from the bench- his heart pounding in his chest like mad the whole time he was arranging her body in his arms.

She was so small, and light in his arms that she felt as if she weighed practically nothing. Alarm bells sounded in his mind, though he ignored them and tried to squash down the sudden sliver of worry he felt for a moment because he knew next to nothing about the problem child.

And yet- yet, there was simply something about how small and light she was that alarmed him.

"Alright problem child, tonight you can crash at my place. But I expect you to call your parents first thing when you get up to tell them that you're safe." He murmured as he palmed the back of her head and pressed it against his shoulder before turning and taking off in the direction of his home.


	3. Chapter 3

Upon reaching his home, Shota had to shift his hold on the girl just so that he could open his apartment door. And once inside he couldn't do as he usually did. Ya know the whole, strip out of his cumbersome clothing and gear so that he could be more comfortable and maybe relax.

However with the problem child in his arms- and even more disturbingly- in his home, he couldn't exactly do any of that. So instead he merely carried the problem child through his home, and opened the door to his bedroom. Despite having a spare room that he could place her in- it was hardly fit for someone to sleep in for a night.

Which was why he was letting the girl take his bed.

For some unexplainable reason, once he had her in his bedroom and gently placed her down on his bed, he felt this odd...tug at his heart as he switched on the small lamp next to the bed and took several moments to relieve her of her shoes, carefully remove the ties holding her hair up and took a moment or so to run his fingers through her long hair.

Marveling at the soft and silky texture of it while watching the beautiful yet strange color play between black and green before finally letting the silken strands fall from his fingertips.

After that, he tugged the sheets up over her slender shoulder and then switched the light back off and quietly made his way out of the bedroom.

Once he felt that that task was done, he walked back towards the living room where he ditched his scarves and capture gear and bulky jacket and over shirt and then dropped them all in an antique wingback chair that he kept pushed up against the living room wall where he could easily grab it if need be. Whether he was on his way in or out of his home.

He'd started doing this ever since All Might had so suddenly changed sides. The truth of the matter was that the man was no more a villain than Shota was. Despite popular public opinion.

The 'former' number one hero was currently deep, deep undercover in a underground crime syndicate and Shota- for better or worse, was his back up. Which meant that when All Might showed up on his doorstep in the morning- if the problem child wasn't awake and on her way home just yet- he would have a damn lot of explaining to do.

And if the blond found his explanations unsatisfactory- well, he just might do something stupid.

Like deck him or something for literally picking up a kid and bringing her home with him. Because in the man's eyes, even if Shota's actions were innocent, he would think that Shota might have developed a taste for underage girls.

And that- in the blond man's eyes- deserved a much needed ass kicking. One that would likely land him in a hospital for several weeks/months where he would spend each day bedridden and _hating_ All Might for every time he visited him and stole his grilled cheeses and pudding cups.

 _The heartless bastard!_ Shota thought as he felt a sliver of anger within him. Didn't he know that those were the only hospital foods worth eating when you were bedridden?! I mean come on- they were delicious! And everything else tasted like cardboard. It was a wonder that no one starved to death on the doctor/nurse's watch.

And it wasn't like he could ever con someone into sneaking him in a cheese burger and large fry or anything.

His co-workers were as heartless as All Might could be at times. But at least he could say that their hearts were usually more or less in the right place.

Well, sort of anyways.

Pulling his long, thick mane of wavy dark hair back into a ponytail and moved to see what he had in his kitchen to eat since he'd skipped meals again today and his stomach was cramping from hunger. It took him a moment or so to check his fridge, freezer and cabinets- but finally he found some stuff to make curry and decided on having that for dinner.

The task of cooking was a mundane one, but one in which he drew some measure of comfort from since his cooking reminded him of his late grandmother and grandfather.

His parents had abandoned him after his quirk had made an appearance. Leaving him with the elderly couple knowing that he would only have them for a short time before he was thrown into foster care.

He'd only had them for five years since they had died when he was thirteen. But during that time his grandmother had taught him how to sew and treat injuries as well as bake some seriously awesome pastries and a few million other things. Whereas his grandfather had taught him a thing or two about fighting dirty when protecting someone he cared for and how to deal with bullies.

The day that they had died, he had left for school after giving his grandma his usual morning kiss on the cheek and his grandpa his usual hug. He hadn't been aware of the fact that sometime around lunch a faulty wire in the house would set it aflame while his grandparents were napping.

But by the time he was called out of class by the police officer who had picked him up- and got back to the smoldering ruins that had once been a happy and loving home- there was nothing left of his grandparent's bodies but bone fragments and ashes.

His grandparents had left him their home and the land that it sat on in their will. Along with a more than generous amount of money that they had put aside for him to go to any school that he wanted, as well as do anything that he wanted in life.

To be honest, he had been shell shocked to know this. After all, they had lived in what could only pass for a rickety two story cabin that practically fell apart every week. And it never failed to amuse his grandmother how quick his grandpa moved when something went to pieces.

Snorting to himself as he finished up making his food and then went to reach for a plate before pausing for a moment and looking back over his shoulder towards the hallway leading to his bedroom. He couldn't help but wonder if the problem child had eaten any thing today? Or ever for that matter.

She was such a small little mite, maybe he should put some back for her to eat tomorrow? Weighing the pro's and cons for a few moment's he decided that since she was in his home, she should at least not only have a safe place to rest her head, but a decent meal before she went home.

Especially since he didn't know what kid of parents she had. Though they probably weren't all that great if they had allowed her to go out so late.

Maybe when she went home he should go with her and threaten them a little bit about being better parents.

Putting an extra plate of curry in the fridge once he was done dishing out a nice big helping of it onto one of his late grandma's antique plates, he then fixed himself some and sat down at the small table in the dinning room to eat. As a man well into his twenties as well as a half starved bachelor, he thought nothing of disregarding all of the manners that his grandma had knocked into his head as a willful child and ravenously tucked into his meal.

After finishing his dinner, he then put the rest of the curry in the fridge for tomorrow and then washed the dishes before finally collapsing face down onto his couch a few minutes later and then promptly dozing off.


	4. Chapter 4

Izuku woke up far later than she was used to feeling more than a little bit groggy and disoriented than normal. Of course it didn't exactly help her any that she had apparently caught something from sleeping outside last night and now felt as if she were running a bit of fever.

Or maybe she was ill from the lack or proper food and rest?

It was sort of hard to say at this point. All she knew was that she didn't feel well at all. Her skin was clammy, she was shivering from chills, her chest and throat ached, her head hurt and her stomach was roiling as if she were about to puke.

Pushing herself upright weakly, she completely missed the blanket and sheets draped over her body and simply at there for a moment trying to gather her bearings when her stomach started to protest more insistently and she quickly clapped a hand over her mouth and scrambled out of the bed that she'd been lying in and made her way to the bathroom across the room.

Where she barely made it to the toilet before collapsing to the floor and dry heaving for the next ten minutes or so before her stomach finally settled down enough for her to move away. She lay her head on her arm while it rested on the toilet seat and took several moments to fumble for the knob that would flush it and the messy foul smelling stuff down the drain.

After which she slowly and unsteadily got to her feet using the toilet to help prop herself up until she was up off of her knees, and then moved to use the sink when she suddenly became aware of the fact that she wasn't home. Or at least, she didn't completely recall going home.

So what the hell was she doing inside? Shouldn't she still be on the...park bench or something?

"Fuck me." She muttered with a frown as she peeked out of the bathroom for a moment, using the faint light to check out her surroundings before blanching a little bit. _Shit_ she was in a guy's room.

More specifically she was in the room of a male between eighteen to twenty five years of age.

Sexually active. Yet no girlfriend or significant other- if the lack of anything with ribbons, lace or even a little bit of sex appeal- were any indication at all. And of course, he had no pets since there was a serious lack of animal fur or scales or whatever lying around.

Still trying to process everything, she totally missed the bedroom door opening a crack and a dark eye peering through the sliver to see what she was doing.

It didn't take a lot to wake him once he fell asleep. As someone who had both a high stress job and a very dangerous and often life threatening one, he had learned early on to wake up when he heard the slightest of misplaced sounds. And the sound of coughing and vomiting- was about as out of place as something could be in his home since he was rarely ill and the only person present was the problem child.

So the moment that he heard the toilet flush, he got up, scrubbed his face with his hands to wake himself up a bit and made his way down the hall to his bedroom to see what the kid was up too.

Opening the door to the room a sliver, he peeked through it so that he could covertly watch her for a moment while he decided on what to do. But after seeing her confused expression and knowing that if he didn't show up and explain things to her- she'd freak out on him in about, oh say, ten seconds or so- he quietly pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

The damned kid was so fucking out of it that she didn't even see him moving into the room, much less towards her for a good minute or so. And when she finally did see him, she shrank back into the bathroom so quickly that she stumbled and fell to the floor.

Hitting her shoulder and the side of her head hard enough to bruise her arm and injure her head badly enough to not only leave a small pool of blood on the tile, but render her unconscious, damned near scaring him shitless as he knelt down next to her and tried to get her to open her eyes.

After several moments of failing to get her to respond to him and open her eyes, he made a frustrated growling sound and quickly left the bathroom to grab a jacket for her and his stuff, including his cell so that he could call All Might and have him meet him at the hospital in his civilian form.

Once he was done doing that and grabbing his shit, he went back to the bathroom and collected the problem child. Gently wrapping the girl in one of his winter coats before lifting her up off of the cold floor and all but running out of his apartment.

* * *

Shota had been sitting in the sitting room for about twenty minutes, anxiously hoping that the kid wasn't too ill or injured when All Might's civilian form- Toshinori Yagi suddenly walked through the door and made a beeline for him. He could see confusion in the blond man's expression as he took a moment to look him over.

To be honest Shota knew that he probably looked like hell, he _had_ just come from the men's room after all. And he had seen his reflection even if it was just long enough to peel his lips back from his teeth and snarl in disgust at his rumpled appearance.

"Shota. What's going on? Why are you here? I don't...see any injuries... Are you sick perhaps?" The blond fired off his round of questions so quickly that Shota almost slugged him just to shut him up. However he managed to control himself and simply sat there chewing on his thumbnail nervously as he waited for Toshinori to fall silent.

"First off, I'm fine. Thanks for asking. Second of all, I'm here because of a problem child that I kinda sort of picked up tonight."

Blue eyes narrowed at him as the blond demanded in a harsher tone than he probably meant. "What do you mean by- you're here because of a 'problem child that you kinda sort of picked up'. What does that even mean?"

"Basically while out on patrol I sort of stumbled across this kid-"

"This kid have a name? A gender?"

"She's a girl. No name as of yet."

 _"Ah."_ The blond said before motioning with his hand for Shota to continue.

"Anyways, I spotted her out on a run in the slums where I was patrolling. It wasn't exactly a nice place for a girl to be out late at night in so-"

"You followed her." Toshinori deadpanned.

"Who's telling the story? Me or you?" Shota snapped at him causing the blond to put his hands up in a placating gesture as he then continued. "I followed her to keep an eye on her. And we wind up at that...park where all that shit happens." Toshinori opened his mouth to say something, but apparently thought better of it. "So anyways, the kid gets a drink and sits down and I wander off to hide in some bushes- still keeping an eye on her just in case a villain or something shows up- and after a while I get impatient to see her on her way home. I go to bully her along and what do I find?"

Toshinori remained silent as he went on to say, "The damned brat had fallen asleep out in the open. I had no choice but to remove her from the park and take her home with me so she wouldn't get hurt or raped or something. Which brings me to why we're here. She woke me up puking so I went to check on her since she's apparently become ill. So I went to check her temperature while she was sort of puzzling over how she got into my home, and freaked out when she realized that I was there and stumbled and fell and hit her shoulder and head."

"She goes unconscious. I freak out because being both sick and concussed can't possibly be good for her- and call you to meet me here." Shota huffs as he finishes his sentence and got a funny look from his friend for a moment as he seems to digest everything that he was just told before asking.

"You do know that while your heart was in the right place- you could go to jail for kidnapping if things aren't properly explained to the girl or her family?"

 _"Shut. Up."_ Shota growled at him from between clenched teeth as the doctor that he'd seen take the problem child back into the ER came walking up to the two of them.

"Excuse me, which of you brought the young lady in?"

Toshinori was super fast at pointing to Shota and grinning in amusement when the man muttered something about shoving him in front of a bus on his way home while the doctor fiddled with his glasses for a moment until Shota fell silent before asking, "I have a few questions about the girl that I hope that you can answer."

Oh that didn't sound good. Shota and Toshinori both thought as the man began firing off questions like, 'Are you the child's parent or guardian?' Toshi snickered and earned himself a quick 'muscle spasm' across the jaw that shut him up rather abruptly as Shota responded with a 'no'. Followed by the rest of the questions.

Did he know that she was ill?

Shota responded carefully that he only found out a little while ago. Around the time that she had fallen and got hurt.

The doctor simply hummed and continued.

How did he know her? Shota didn't feel up to sharing that particular story again thank you very much. So instead he lied, saying that the kid was Toshinori's niece. Causing the blond man to sputter for a moment in utter disbelief as Shota gave him his famous, if-I'm-going-down-you-will-come-with-me look.

The doctor ignored their childish antics as he continued on. However once he finished and Shota asked how the kid was the doc sighed and told him that she had a severe concussion, a temperature of a hundred and three point one, she was under fed, and under weight for someone her age and height.

And then he dropped the really alarming stuff on them.

Possible abuse.

Apparently the girls entire torso on both her front and back were covered in nothing but burn wounds, bruises and scars from poorly healed wounds. He told them both that he was giving her an fluid IV and a few other things, but she should be released in a few hours if they wished to take her home.


	5. Chapter 5

Shota paced the width of the room while Toshinori sat watching him curiously. It wasn't like Shota to loose his cool like this. But he supposed that since he had temporarily assumed responsibility of the girl lying on the bed asleep- that his loosing his cool was a tad bit warranted.

The girl was after all, _someone's_ child. Who was both ill and injured.

Finally Shota stopped his pacing and looked him in the eye while absently chewing on his thumbnail for a moment before dropping his hand away from his mouth and asked in a low tone, "What do you think happened to her?"

Toshinori was unsure of how to answer his question despite seeing some of the various burn markings and other wounds covering her arms, legs and other places that Shota had checked earlier. To be perfectly honest, the wounds to him looked like a clear cut case of quirk/child abuse.

However he didn't want to voice those concerns here in an enclosed room with Shota barely hanging on to his temper. The man was likely to toss something out of a window in a fit of rage.

"I'm not sure, Shota. Perhaps once she is awake and well again she can tell us." He suggested as he watched the dark haired man glare at him for a moment before making a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and then scrubbing his face with his hands as they both heard a soft knock on the door and a nurse hesitantly peeked in.

"Yes?" Shota said as she fidgeted for a moment before telling them that she was there to check the IV drip and make sure it was done and if it was then she was to get things together to let the kid go home with them.

Shota looked thoughtful as he stepped back as the woman entered the room and quietly went about her work before finally unhooking the IV and gently pulling the needle out of the kid's arm and placing a band aid on it over the bruised and bleeding flesh before turning to the two with a smile and handing over the discharge papers for someone to sign.

Toshinori didn't bother since he didn't think that Shota would be letting the kid out of his sight anytime soon even once she was well again. The guy was simply too much of a mother hen.

Always fretting over someone or something.

Shota signed the papers while Toshi stood up and asked the nurse to take him to pay the bill for the kid since Shota likely had forgotten to grab his hero's license and the money card with his substantial monthly pay on it when he had been leaving his home.

Not that the money mattered any to Toshinori. He had more money than the emperor of Japan, Bill Gates, and the president of the U.S combined. Of course part of the reason that he had so much was because he rarely used it for anything aside from a few upgrades and home repairs, and some cheap store bought foods that he could actually stand to eat.

Once he paid the bill, which was shockingly not what he had expected given the girl's treatment, he was on his way back to the room when he ran into an one of his old friends from the police force. Naomasa Tsukauchi smiled the moment that he saw him and moved to give him the usual greeting.

A nice half hug and a pat on the back.

One of Toshinori's secret favorite ways to greet the people close to him.

"Hello my friend." Toshi said as the man started to pull back and said.

"Hello to you too. How's everything as a villain going?"

Being one of the absolute few people that Toshi trusted with the truth, he had told his friend the truth of what he would be doing after he had first gone off the grid to prevent capture by the other officers/pro-hero's.

"Not as rewarding as being a hero. In fact there are many days I have to prevent myself from punching some of them through walls."

"I would imagine so considering what they've been doing. So are you any closer to your goal?"

"I hope so. I just want to end it and put this whole mess behind me and return to active duty as a hero." Toshinori said as the two walked down the hall towards the room where Shota and the girl was when his friend finally thought to ask,

"So...not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but why are you in the hospital?"

Toshi snorted in amusement before replying. "Eraserhead picked up a stray child earlier tonight while on duty. He removed her from a potentially hostile environment but now she's ill and as if that wasn't enough- she fell and injured herself as well."

"So you brought her here." His friend said, finally catching on as Toshinori shrugged his thin shoulders before saying.

"It couldn't really be helped. She wasn't responding to Shota when she hit her head." Tsukauchi winced in sympathy upon hearing about the kid's head injury as they finally reached the room and he opened the door to invite his friend in but paused when he saw Shota holding the girl half upright and was tugging her clothing on so that she would be decent when they left.

Turning his head a little bit, he caught Toshinori staring at the kid and made a loud growling, warning sound that caused the man to flush and stutter out an apology for entering without knocking as Shota subtly moved his body so that the girl couldn't be seen by his friend anymore and gently wrapped her in the same jacket that he'd brought her in wearing before laying her back on the bed and motioning for Toshi to enter the room.

Taking note of the fact that Toshi had brought along detective Tsukauchi as he entered, the man raised a brow at the detective when he took one look at the kid and froze up. His formerly warm expression turning worried as he brushed past a confused Toshinori and quickly made his way to the side of the bed and leaned over the girl and grasped her slender shoulders before saying in a strangely choked tone of voice, "Izuku? Hey, hey way up! Izuku? _Izuku_?"

"Wait- you know her?" Toshinori asked in shock while Shota merely stared at the man as he slowly removed his hands from the girl and straightened his spine and said.

"I- yes- Of course I know her. I've been keeping tabs on her for months."

"Why?"

"Well, because...four months ago...she- she tried to kill herself three times."


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you Rolzunite for the IV thingy. I'll try to keep it in mind despite the fact that where I come from that's what we call liquids for an IV in the local hospitals.**

 **Also- been sick the past few days, so if this chap doesn't make any sense- blame the illness and I will correct it at a later date.**

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"She...tried to-" Shota couldn't bring himself to say the rest, so he simply stopped there as his mind tried to process what the detective had just told him and Toshi before he felt his temper skyrocket from mere anger to straight up homicidal rage.

"Kill herself three times, yes." Tsukauchi finished for him as he took in both pro-hero's grim expressions before looking away from them. Toshinori's unblinking stare alone was making him unbearably uncomfortable. Whereas Shota's silence was merely... _unsettling_.

"And her name is Izuku?" Shota asked in a slightly curious tone once he manage to find his voice again. Tsukauchi opened his mouth to reply when Toshinori suddenly cut him off and said slowly.

"I think you should start at the beginning and explain how a child her age began courting death, my friend."

"O-Oh yes of course. Sorry. Um, her name is Izuku Midoriya. She is thirteen, going on fourteen years of age. She lost her only family seven years ago in an home invasion where a couple of villains broke into her home and raped and murdered her mother while holding her prisoner for several days before they were finally found and caught. When she was found, she was locked in the room with her mother's body. It...wasn't a pretty sight. The bastards had pretty much used their quirks on the late Mrs. Midoriya until her body had been almost torn completely apart. The officers and pro-hero's that caught the guys have no idea if she witnessed the rape or her mother being killed or not...she refused to speak to anyone about anything that she may or may not have been witnessed."

"From that time she's spent some time in and out of foster care, and that's when she started getting hurt. Which led to a long string of hospital stays and inevitably the suicide attempts. She drank bleach once. Threw herself from the roof of a building on her second attempt and on her third one she tried to hang herself."

"She's quiet. She doesn't say much. Doesn't eat or sleep much. Likes books, and reading. In fact she'll read just about anything that she get's her hands on. Has a photographic memory. Is good at singing, painting and sketching. Her favorite thing to do is listen to her MP3 player and just walk around. She's been living on her own for the past three in a half years in an little apartment not far from here. She ignores her body's needs _constantly._ She's been continuously bullied at school by both the teachers and students- and refuses to give me the name of the little _snot_ that has been injuring her and leaving her covered in burns so that I can bring him up on criminal charges. Is there anything else you want to know? Her favorite food and color maybe?"

"No. You've given us more than enough info." Toshinori said gently as he glanced at the girl, his mind unable to fully wrap around the pain and sorrow that she must have gone through upon losing her mother so violently at such a young age. Much less the continued pain and sorrow that she still seemed to be going through daily.

The one thing that he did know was that if she continued down her road of self destruction- was that she would _die_. Trying to think of some way to help the girl, Toshi's mind kept coming back to one answer. Quickly weighing the pros and cons, he then decided before saying.

"Tsukauchi, since young Midoriya has no one to care for her, would you help me to legally become her guardian or adopt her?" The question seemed to shock both Shota and Tsukauchi since the two stared to gape at him in slack jawed disbelief, causing Toshi to bristle slightly before demanding in a defensive tone.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Honestly the two were acting as if he had just stated that the girl would be his child bride or something. It was irking the normally slow to irritate and anger, blond.

"Toshinori do you even know what your asking?" Tsukauchi asked, his tone worried.

The blond stood up a little bit straighter so that he towered over the two, and glowered at them as he took a small step forward and gently took one of the girl's small hands in his own before saying, "We are pro-hero's Shota. And there is an innocent child in need of help, right before us. If we turn our backs on her now and something happens to her...either by her own hand or someone else's, then how can we continue to call ourselves hero's when we refuse to help the one closest within our reach?"

"Yes but-" Tsukauchi started to protest that now wasn't exactly the time for Toshi to take in a kid. Especially one as troubled as Izuku, especially given his current job undercover as a 'villain'.

"Look at it like this. I have no wife. No children and I have a job that will eventually _kill_ me. As much as I would like to leave all of my worldly possessions and such to my friends- it would do no one any good. And really I would much rather give to someone who needs it. Much like I would rather give a warm home, love and a comforting shoulder to cry on to someone who needs it. And it is more than clear that young Midoriya needs each of those things desperately," Toshnori said gently as he gave the girl's small hand a slight squeeze before carefully tucking her hand back where it had been before, safe and snug underneath the lapels of the jacket before finally tacking on in a somewhat more cheerful tone, "Besides, I was told once by my late master that I'd make a great dad."

The two men remained silent for several seconds longer before Tsukauchi snorted and slowly shook his head at his old friend before saying, "Fine. But you're going to have a lot of work to do with her. The kid has been dealing with everything on her own for far too long- she'll think that you're trying to make a charity case of her once she finds out that you've decided to take her in, and she will fight you. Also, you'll need to have a living will, just in case something happens to you, stating who will take her in as her new legal guardian."

"Oh that's easy," Toshinori said as he looked away from Izuku's sleeping form with a wide grin. "Shota would be her new legal guardian if anything ever happened to me. As it is, I'm planning to make him her godfather so that he doesn't worry so much about her. That way he can visit all he wants and vice versa."

Shota bristled slightly at this and practically snarled, "What was that you dumb blond bastard?!"

Toshinori waved the man's insult off as if he hadn't said anything at all and merely said, "Come on Shota, you know that unless you can check up on her- you'll fret constantly about whether she's dead in a ditch somewhere." Shota opened his mouth to say something scathing to the man, but then snapped his mouth shut and merely huffed as he realized that Toshi was right.

He would worry about her. And Toshi had made a lot of other points too.

The kid needed someone to care for her, whether she realized it or not. And Toshinori could give her pretty much whatever help she needed. But that didn't mean that he had to like the idea of becoming her godfather. Still...it was obvious that Toshi had thought this out a bit more than Shota himself would have.

If it were him, he'd simply adopt her as his younger sibling and not see her until the end of every week. Not because he didn't care, but because he had other responsibilities at the moment.

Responsibilities that Toshi didn't really have all that much to be concerned with despite his present job undercover. The man could be a villain for three hours a day, while checking in on the kid to make sure of where she was, what she was doing, and if she was in need of anything and still be home to be- uh...fatherly...

Sighing since he knew that there was no way to win with Toshi shy of actually killing him. Especially when the kid needed them- he gave in to the idea. Though he was internally cringing as he did so.

Dammit he was to fucking young to be a 'father' of any kind. Godfather or not.

"Yeah, okay. I'm in. Tsukauchi- you push the paperwork through for Toshinori and he and I will work out the details of his will so that all the bases are covered just in case. While we're at it, we also need to talk about where the kid will stay since blondie's forgotten for the moment that he's undercover and the kid shouldn't stay with him until the end of his job."

Toshi looked momentarily panicked as he muttered, "Oh! I completely forgot about that!" Causing Shota to sigh again as Tsukauchi merely shook his head and slowly chuckled before deciding to leave to get to work on the papers needed to place Izuku in his old friend's care.


End file.
